(Adds comments on North Korea in fourth paragraph.)

By Frederik Balfour

Source:

April 07, 2010

Proposed new sanctions against Iran aimed at stopping its nuclear program won’t work, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton said.

“It is too late,” Bolton said today in a speech at the Foreign Correspondents Club in Hong Kong. “We are beyond the point of sanctions working.”

President Barack Obama’s administration is pushing for tougher restrictions on Iran for failing to comply with UN resolutions aimed at limiting its nuclear weapons program. Bolton, now a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, was the top U.S. envoy to the world body under George W. Bush, and has repeatedly criticized the current administration.

Bolton also said attempts to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program will also fail even if multilateral talks with China, South Korea, Russia, the U.S. and Japan resume.

“They are looking for a way to get six-party talks re- started to get tangible economic assistance,” Bolton said. “But North Korea has made four sets of commitments since 1994, and has never followed through on them.”

–Editors: Bill Austin, Paul Tighe